Elevator signal system



March 30 1926.

1,578,?"33 s. VAN BLpEM ELEVATOR SIGNAL SYSTEM Filed Sept. 7 18, 1923 a Sheets- Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR Alma/11 1a Vanjlam ATTORNEYS.

March 30 1926.-

. 1,578,783 s. VAN BLOEM ELEVATOR SIGNAL SYSTEM Filed Sept. -18. 1923 5,3heets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS.

March 30 1926. 1,578,783

P. 5. VAN BLOEM v ELEVATOR SIGNAL SYSTEM Filed Sept. 18, 1923 s Sheets$heet :5

I UL INVENTOR ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 30, 1926.

UNITED STATES 1,578,783 PATENT OFFICE.

PAUL SCHUYLER VAN 'IBLOEM, .OF HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR -TO VIKING PRODUCTS CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y-', A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

ELEVATOR SIGNAL SYSTEM.

Application filed September To all whom. it ma concern:

Be it known that PAUL SCHUYLER VAN BLOEM, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Hempstead, in the county of Nassau and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elevator Signal'Systems (Case No. 9), of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in elevator signal systems, and has for its object to provide simple and efiicient means for visually indicating at each floor served by an elevator car .both the direction of travel of the car and the position of the car in the elevator shaft; to provide means for indicating at each floor the position of an elevator car by means of an electric ing on the down signal lamps when the car reaches the upper limit of its travel.

To the foregoing and other ends, which will hereinafter appear, the invention con sists in the features of construction, arrangements of parts, and combinations of devices set forth in the following description and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings: v

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view through an elevator shaft in a building equipped with the improved signal system; Fig. 2 a front view showing the shaft door and signal box at one of the upper floors;

Fig. 3 a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3, a part of the rear wall of the direction signal compartments being broken away;

Fig. 6 a section on the line 66 of Fig. 7; Fig. 7 a sectional view similar-to Fig. 3

:taken through the signal box at the lowest floor served the'elevator car;

Fig. 8 a etailfront view of the caroperated circuit-controlling --means for the "endless driving belt a flat steel band which is adapted to drive 18, 1923. Serial no. 663,461.

direction signal lamps mounted in the signal box shown in Figs. 6 and 7 and Fig. 9 a diagrammatic view showing the electric circuit for the car-position signal lamps and the direction signal lamps.

Referring to the drawings by numerals, l designates the elevator shaft in which the usual car 2 is raised and lowered by a hoisting mechanism 3 of ordinary construction. A belt 4 passes between a pressure roller 7 and a signal-unit driving roller 8 at each floor and is carried over pulleys 9 at the upper and lower ends of the shaft and secured at its ends to the front wall of the car 2 at 11. The pulleys 9 are journaled on fixed bearings 12 suitably supportedadjacent the front wall of the shaft .1, while the rollers 7 and 8 are journaled on bearings 10 and 13 respectively mounted in the shaft at the front wall thereof. The 4 preferably comprises the rollers 8' when the car moves, said band being clamped sufficiently tightly between rollers 7 and 8 to provide a non-slipping friction drive. It will be obvious that other suitable means such as a chain and sprocket drive'might be substituted for this belt and friction wheel drive if desired.

Each driving wheel 8 has rigidly afiixed to its rear face a pulley 14 connected by a driving belt 15 with a pulley 16 fixed on the rear end of a shaft 17 journalled 1n bearings 18 and 19 in the adjacent signag The signal units at eac unit casing 20.

except that the floor are precisely alike, signal unit for the; lowermost certain additional devices for controlling the up and down signal lamps hereinafter described. A

Each signal unit casing is set in an opening in the front wall of the shaft 1 over the usual shaft door 21. The metallic casing 20 is of semi-cylindrical form and 1s closed at its front end by a metal face plate 23 and at its rear end by a metal back plate 24. Pulley 16 is located at the rear face floor embodies of plate 24, and shaft 17 extends forwardly 7 into casing 20 and has fixed thereon a worm 25 meshing with a worm gear 26. Gear 26 is fixed on a transverse shaft 27 journalled. in bearings 28 in the casing 20, and said shaft has fixed thereon a worm 29 meshin with a worm gear 30. Gear 30 is fixed on the rear end of a shaft 31 journalled in tery 44 or other source of current.

mating the floors served by car 2 and bearings 32 and 33 in the casing and extends fore-and-aft within said casing. The worm gearing just described forms a reduction gearin for slowly oscillating shaft 31, said shaft eing turned clockwise when the car moves upward and counter-clockwise when the \car moves downward.

A radial arm'34 is fixed on shaft 31 adjacent the forward end of the shaft and car ries at its outer end a forwardly extending,

metal cup .35 within which is housed an .in-

candescent electric lamp 36 supported in a socket 37 carried by said arm.

The openfront end of cup is carried past the open rear ends ofan arcuate series of car-position. sign compartments 38, one for each floor served by thecar, as the arm 34 is swung from side to side. The gearing above described is designed to swing the arm from the first to the last compartment 38 during travel of the car between the.

lowermost and uppermost floors served thereby. Compartments 38 are formed by radial portions 39 extending between two narrow concentr c semi-cylindrical walls 40 and rigidly mounted in casing 20 with their forward edges abutting the face platec23.- Plate 23is' cutaway at the forward end of each compartment 38 in the manner of a stencil to form numerals deiig- 0 ass blocks or sign characters 42 are secured by clips 43 against the rear face of said plate,

said blocks having raised floor-designating numerals 42 on their front faces projecting through the openings in the stencil plate 23.-

The lamps 36 burn continuously while the *car is in use, said lamps being wired in parallel as shown in Fig. 9, the filament of each lamp being located in a bridge F or transverse conductorline connected with line wires A and B leading, respectively, to

the positive and negative teminals of a bat A suit: able manually operable switch 45 vis providedat a convenient point, preferably ad jacent the door 21 at the lowest floor served b the car, whereby theoperator may break tli e circuit A BF when the operation of the car is sto ped for the day.-

In order tat prospective passengers on any floor may ascertain whether a car is upward bound or downward bound at any time, even while the car is temporarily stationary at some point in the shaft, an up and a down, signal is provided at each floor. To this end,.each signal box casing 20 is" provided with two closed direction- 4 signal lamp compartments 46 arranged side by side within the front portion of said casing under. the series of compartments 38.

The compartments are enclosed by a semicylindrical wall 47, a rear vertical wall 48 located forward of the forward endsof shafts 17 and 31 a vertical fore-andaft partition plate 49, and the front plate 23 of .the signal box casing 20. Plate 23 at the. forward end of the left hand compartment 46 is cutaway to form stencil apertures through which project the raised letters 50 on a glass plate 50 held against tlfe rear face of plate 23 by clips 51, said letters forming the word up. The plate 23 at the forward end of the right hand compare ment 46 is cut away to form stencil apertures through which project the raised letters 52* on a glass plate 52 held against the rear face of plate 23 by clips 53, said letters formingthe word down. An up signal lamp 55 is mounted in the left hand compartment 46 and a down signal lamp 56 is mounted in the right hand compartment 46 said lamps being screwed in sockets 57 and 58 held to the bottom of casing 20.

Shaft 31 in the signal box 20 located at the lowest floor served by the car extends forwardly beyond bearing bracket 33 partly across the space between said bearing bracketland the rear wall 48 of the direction signal compartments. The three-arm rocking member 59 of a multiple-point car-con- I trolled snap switch is loosely mounted on this projecting end of shaft 31 so as to betiltablev independently of the shaft. Said member 59 is formed of suitable insulating material and carries two switch contacts 60 and 61 adjacent the outer ends of its two laterally extending arms. These movable contacts 60 and 61 are both connected by a line wire A with the positive pole of battery 44. Contact 6Q is movable into and out of engagement with a fixed contact 62 sup.- ported on the casing 20 and suitably insulated therefrom, while contact 61 is movable into anll out of engagement with a fixed casing 20. Lamps 55 are wired in parallel with a line wire C leaking from contact and the negative line wire B of the car-position lamp signal circuit ABF, bridge conductors U connecting the terminals of the lamps 55' with lines C and B. Lamps 56 are connected by bridge conductors D with the negative line wire B and a line wire E leading to contact 63. A

It will be obvious that when member 59 is rocked to the left to engage contacts 60 cpntact 63 supported on and insulated from and 62 lamps 55 will be lighted, a circuit at the forward side of said arm. Theopposite side faces of block 64 are adapted to alternately engage the upper ends of the binding posts 60 and 61 on switch member 59 as the arm approaches the opposite limits of its travel and rock said member to shift the switch from one on position 'to the other on position. A sprin 65 connected with the upwardly exten ing arm of member 59 and secured to a bracket 66 on casing below the shaft 31 is shiftable across the front end of said shaft after a short preliminary rocking-movement of member 59 and serves to quiekly complete the movement of said member from one on position to the other and hold it there. From the foregoing it will be chvious that the switch '59 will be automatically operated as the car reaches the lower limit of its travel to close a circuit through all the up signal lamps 55 and break a circuit through all the down signal lamps V 56, while when the car reaches the upper limit of its travel said switch will be automatically operated to close'the down signal lamp circuit and break the up signal lampccircuit.

What I claim is:

1. In an elevator signal system the combination of a pluralit of dial plates for the different floors of a uilding served by an elevator car each dial plate having a series of floor designatin characters thereon adapted to admit light through them, a movable lamp support located at the rear of each dial plate, an electric lamp carried by each su port, an electrical circuit connected to al of said lamps and adapted to maintain them constantly illuminated durmg the up-and-down movements of the elevator car, and means operable by the move mentjof an'elevator car from floor to floor for simultaneously shifting said lamp suplamp past the rear faces of the floor designating characters and thereby render the corresponding characters of eac series luminoussuccessively. 2. In an elevator signal system, thecombination of a plurality of dial plates forthe different floors of a buildin served by an elevator car each dial plate aving a series of floor'designating characters thereon adapted to admit light through them, a movable lamp support located at the rear of each dial plate, an electric lamp carried by each support, a, closedelectrical circuit connected to said lamps to maintain them constantly illumlnated, means operable by'the movement of an elevator up or down for simultaneously shifting said lamp supports to move each lamp back or forth past the rear faces of the floor designating'characters and thereby render the corresponding characters of each series luminous successively, a pair of up and down signals c'on nected to each dial plate to ndicate the direction of movement of the elevator car,

an electric lamp to illuminate each signal, electric circuit means connected to all of the up signal lamps, electric circuit means connected to all of the down signal lamps, and means operated by one of said movable lamp supportsat the limit of its movement in one, direction to open the up signal circuit and'close the down signal circuit and operated by said support at the limit of its movement in the opposite direction to close the up circuit and open the down circuit.

3. Anjelevator signal comprising acasing, an opaque dial plate closing the. front of said casing, a pair of spaced arcuate concentric light-excluding walls of relatively slight depth extending rearwardly into the casing from the dial plate, the said plate being formed between the light-excluding wall withan arcuate series of stencil openings, a series of spaced light-excluding walls extending between the said arcuate walls and separating the different stencil openings of the series, a series of glass plates secured to the rear face ofthe dial plate in the enclosure formed by said light-excluding walls and formed with raised floor-designating characters projecting through the stencil openings and outwardly from the front face of the dial plate, a pair of glass plates with the center of the arcuate-series of icharacters, a lamp carried by the outer end of said arm, and a light concentrating cup surrounding the lamp and carried by the said radial arm, said cup having its open end directly forwardly toward the floor-designating characters and disposed close to the rear edges of the light-excluding walls .sur-

rounding saidch'aracters', whereby the char-,

acters w1ll be illuminated successively as the radial arm is swung.

4. An levator signal comprising an opaque dial plate formed with an arcuate series of stencil openings, a series of glass plates secured to the rear face, of the dial plate and formed withraised floor-designatmg characters projecting through the stencil I open and outwardly from the front face of'the dial plate, a 1pair of glass plates secured to, the rear wal of the dial plate the are of the floor-designating charwords-Up and Down in raised letters projecting through stencil openings in the dial plate and outwardly from its front face, a radial arm pivoted at the rear'ot the dial plate in alinement with the center of the arcuate series of characters, a lamp carried by the outer end of the radial arm, means carried by .said arm to concentrate the rays from said lamp and direct them forwardly at right angles from the arm and through the arc of the character series, a pair of fixed lamps located respectively back of the up and down signals to illuminate them, and light-excluding Walls arranged to surround said lamps and separate one lamp and its signal from the other lamp and its signal.

5. An elevator signal coniprlsmg a casing, an opaque dial plate closing the from of said casing, an arcuate series of floordesign'ating characters carried by the dial plate and adapted to admit light therethrough, a radial arm pivotally mounted at the rear of the dial plate in alinement with the center of the arcuate series of characters to swing in a plane parallel 'to the dial plate, a lamp carried by said arm, means carried by said arm to concentrate the rays from the lamp and direct them forwardly at right angles from the arm through the arc of the character series,- a pair of up and down signals located in the dial plate within the arc of the character series and adapted to admit light through them, a lamp located back of each signal to illuminate it, and light-excluding walls arranged to. surround said lamps and separate one lamp and signal from the other lamp and signal.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

PAUL sonnrtisa VAN IoEM. 

